Tag Archives: Rialto Beach

The Olympic Coast is a sublime strip of wilderness beach that stretches for 60 miles, from the mouth of the Hoh River in the south to the legendary Shi-Shi Beach in the north. It is widely acknowledged to offer some of the best ocean-front hiking on Planet Earth, including three glorious point-to-point traverses that are, each in their own way, …

I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest for 32 years, giving me time to study it, finding unparalleled variety and wonder everywhere I look. From glacier-clad mountains, to the forests growing on their flanks and down to the lowlands—where they’ve been allowed to survive without logging, to the details within those forests, to our magnificent coastline, and even to the geometric …

My husband and I venture out to the wild and lonely Olympic Coast as often as we can. I’m always amazed by the quality and the angle of the light at the ocean’s edge. The sun often rises and sets through thick, opaque mist. Then the fog clears, revealing the drama of waves relentlessly pounding the sea stacks and islands. …

In our winter issue we highlighted the hike to Hole in the Wall on the Olympic Coast as a truly great winter outing. Just to be sure, we hauled our backpacks out there for a few days, a trip timed to coincide with the calm just before a predicted winter storm. The weather Gods were accommodating and we were given …

Hole in the Wall The Olympic Coast is magical in winter. The crowds are gone, the sea is tempestuous, and the broad expanse of Pacific Ocean and open sky is a tonic for the winter-closeted soul. From the trailhead at Rialto Beach in Olympic National Park it’s an easy two-mile hike north up the beach. The only obstacle is Ellen …

  The towering headlands, crowned with mist, Their feet among the billows, know That Ocean is a mighty harmonist                                               – William Wordsworth There’s something about spending days and nights beside the sea. Maybe it’s the invigorating wind that blows across it, unhindered for 5,000 miles. Perhaps it’s the rhythm of the waves, like a heartbeat, slowing the pulse and …